Any good 128GB SSD comparisons out there?

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Magma

Weaksauce
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Feb 1, 2003
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I am picking up a new SSD drive for my laptop and am targeting 128GB or so due to price and disk usage. Are there any good comparisons out there anywhere that show performance/power usage in that size and price bracket? Anyone else gone through the same sort of decision and have experience to share? I'm currently looking at the Crucial C300 128GB, Crucial M4 128GB, and OCZ Vertex 3 120GB but will consider others of course. The laptop itself is an HP 8510W, so doesn't do SATA3 but I hope to use the drive I buy in whatever laptop replaces the current one in six months or so. Thanks!
 
Before you get the Vertex 3 I would go to the OCZ forum and do some reading. There have been some early compatibility problems, especially with certain laptops. I currently have a 120GB Vertex 3 Max that I just installed. This is the 2nd Vertex 3 Max. I had to return the first one due to it turning into a brick in 2 days. The 2nd drive appears to be fine and I am having no problems. The regular 120GB Vertex 3 is much slower then the 240GB version. Go with the Max version if you go Vertex, price is about the same and performance is much better then the standard.
 
The C300 has been a solid drive for me so far. Being your only on SATA2 have you looked at the intel 320 series? There have been some sales on the C300 128gb for $199 which is hard to beat.
 
Good info so far. Keep it coming. I need it to work with SATA3 to use it in the future.
 
Read every manufacturer's forum before jumping in. I like the C300, but I know it has a couple of quirks and I may have to tweak my system. Intel seems like the safest bet.
 
I have a C300 in my home desktop and it's been flawless. Looking to the new gen drives to see what else is out there too, though. Priorities for this drive are:

1) Reliability: I will be earning a living with this laptop, so it has to work
2) Speed: Everything from standard Office apps to Visual Studio, faster makes me faster
3) Low power usage: Longer battery life helps me work long in places that I can't plug in
4) Cost: $275 is probably an upper limit, with $250 or less being ideal

Keep the great info coming. Thanks!
 
Magma said:
I have a C300 in my home desktop and it's been flawless. Looking to the new gen drives to see what else is out there too, though. Priorities for this drive are:

1) Reliability: I will be earning a living with this laptop, so it has to work
2) Speed: Everything from standard Office apps to Visual Studio, faster makes me faster
3) Low power usage: Longer battery life helps me work long in places that I can't plug in
4) Cost: $275 is probably an upper limit, with $250 or less being ideal

Keep the great info coming. Thanks!
Click to expand...
being that you want a drive for your laptop; wouldn't the Intel 310 be a great candidate for you?
 
Magma said:
I have a C300 in my home desktop and it's been flawless. Looking to the new gen drives to see what else is out there too, though. Priorities for this drive are:

1) Reliability: I will be earning a living with this laptop, so it has to work
2) Speed: Everything from standard Office apps to Visual Studio, faster makes me faster
3) Low power usage: Longer battery life helps me work long in places that I can't plug in
4) Cost: $275 is probably an upper limit, with $250 or less being ideal

Keep the great info coming. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I recently upgraded from a Vertex LE to a Vertex 3 Max IOPS and other then higher benchmarks I can't tell any difference in boot time, apps loading or anything else. If I had to do it over I think I would go with the Intel 510 due to compatibility issues with the Vertex 3 and the supposedly better reliability of the Intel. My failure rate with the Vertex 3 is 50% so far. From my experience and reading on the OCZ forum the Vertex 3 is real picky about cables and the drivers being used by your system. The Vertex 3 is fast on bench marks but doesn't really show up in daily use for me anyway. And the jury is still out on the other factors such as compatibility and long term reliability.
 
I got my Intel 510 120 for around 270 from amazon a couple weeks ago.

Loving it in my laptop, and desktop :D
 
I think the 120GB Intel 320 would be an ideal choice for you. It has good performance, but most important, it is your best bet for reliability and compatibility. The Intel is also lower power than the Vertex 3 and the m4.
 
the Crucial M4 isn't a bad drive at all compred to the Intel 510, especially when you consider its cheaper and you get a few more GB.

Besides, there isn't a drive that wins all the benches anwyays. Just really depends on your intended use for the SSD.
 
Thanks, all. Just to reiterate, if it's not SATA3, I won't be considering it. This drive will be in this laptop for a few months at most, and then will be in either a new laptop or a desktop that will surely be able to do SATA3.
 
Cliff Couser said:
the Crucial M4 isn't a bad drive at all compred to the Intel 510, especially when you consider its cheaper and you get a few more GB.

Besides, there isn't a drive that wins all the benches anwyays. Just really depends on your intended use for the SSD.
Click to expand...

Always keep this in mind :D
 
I'm down to either the Crucial C300 or M4 128MB. It sounds like the M4 is slightly faster but for a current sale price of $25 more than the C300. I doubt you can actually notice a differences, so I might go with the C300 128mb on sale on Amazon for $199.
 
I'm in the same boat in deciding between the C300 and M4.
I'm leaning towards the M4 though. Overall the higher sustained speeds is going to shorten the "long" waits.
 
I decided on the M4 and order from Newegg last night for $220.

My reason being that:
1) the M4 appears to have more useful performance in the areas where I'm prone to be "waiting".
The random read C300 is great, but the times I spend twittling my thumbs is usually on loading or writing large files so reducing the most noticeable (and longest) delays has a higher "bang-for-the-buck" value.
The analogy here would be opening up email on my phone versus loading a web page on my phone. The email app opens up pretty quickly as is. If the app opened up in 1/2 the time, going from 1/4s -> 1/8s, I'm not sure it would help me much. However, opening up a web page on the smartphone browser sometimes takes a while. If that was reduced from 10s to 5s, I'd notice that much more.

2) The M4 is newer. So in terms of obsolescence, I would expect it to have a year of life more, in firmware updates, compared to the C300 which will get "end of life" status sooner.
 
I actually ordered the M4 though Zones at work for $213 yesterday. Not sure when I'll get it, though, as ordering it through work for my work laptop always takes too long but the corporate discount is nice.
 
Wow...I think I might have just snagged a smoking deal. The M4 128gb just went on sale at newegg today for 219 (no coupon code required). I saw the sale and remembered the coupon code for $40 off. I was pretty sure it wouldn't work...but tried anyway. I added to cart, applied coupon code and it WORKED! 179.99 out the door! We'll see if my order gets cancelled...

Although I just checked and the drive is currently out of stock...I almost guarantee they saw a few orders go through, realized the mistake of having the sale start while the coupon code was good for one more day and marked the drive as OOS. I'd bet money the drive mysteriously shows back in stock starting tomorrow (as soon as coupon code expires)...
 
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